The Test squad for the West Indies has been beset by injuries to the excellent opening pair of Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag. Then to the chagrin of his hordes of Indian fans and the West Indian fans, who would have reveled in his mastery. Sachin Tendulkar has made himself unavailable for the series.

So this sets up a glimpse of the future for India with many youngsters and fine performers in the Ranji Trophy rewarded with a place in the squad. The new faces in the squad are as follows:

Abhinav Mukund:

The young Tamil Nadu opening batsman is a dashing left handed stroke player, who has been prolific in First Class cricket.

Subramaniam Badrinath:

Arguably this fine Tamil Nadu batsman has been viewed as the unluckiest player in Indian cricket. He has been prolific for many years and has been overlooked; bar a brief two Tests against South Africa in 2010.Where he scored a half century against a rampant Dale Steyn, but was overlooked for the Sri Lankan Tour thereafter. This Tour will be his chance to shine

Virat Kohli:

The man touted as a long term replacement at number 3 when Rahul Dravid retires is an attack minded stroke player. He would be in the style of a dominating number three like Ricky Ponting.

The Squad also sees the return of Amit Mishra, who in his short career has shown to be a promising leg spin bowler. Then also the very promising left arm spinner Pragyan Ohja is also in the Squad. So these two in support of Harbhahjan Singh can be expected to exploit the West Indians weakness against spins. As was ruthlessly exposed by the Pakistani spinners.

The pace attack will be spearheaded by the evergreen and very refined Zaheer Khan. Then the tour will give a chance for the trio of Sreesanth, Ishant Sharma and Munaf Patel to try to turn their obvious potential into consistent performance in Tests.

As for the batting the only certainties in the top 6 are the openers Murali Vijay and Abhinav Mukund, Rahul Dravid at 3 and VVS Laxman in the middle order. So the other two spots in the middle order will be contested between Suresh Rain, Virat Kohli and Subramaniam Badrinath.

Keeping this in mind as well as the noted West Indians weakness against spin. This would be my Test XI:

Hi All, I’m an old gent having been born in 1953 in Derry, Nth Ireland. I learnt my love for cricket during my time in South Africa in between 1964-66. My hero as you can see by my profile picture is 'Chandra'! I am a qualified journalist having worked in Radio and papers across the Globe. Though I’m currently a teacher, who is on extended medical leave due to my heart not agreeing with the Irish past time of drinking copious amounts of Whisky! I have many tales to tell in regards to a lot of sports having played both Football and Cricket professionally. I hope you enjoy a few I share with you!
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Tim